Training Log Archive: j-man

Easy run on roads. Saw 8 rabbits.

Event: WCOC Bethel Schools meet
 

Easy run with Speedy at Mt. Joy. We ran about at 2:00 and it was hot! It was intended to be an easy run--and the pace was probably easy--but the effort, especially an hour in, was higher than a 2, for sure.

DVOA Myrick Relays.

Team j-man.

So, it was Randy, Vadim, and I who were doing the solo relay, with Greg A, and Joby H thrown into the mix on the first leg(s) to spice things up.

Leg order: white, yellow, advanced.

My strategy going into this was to run the first two legs at a moderate pace, and then, somehow to push the speed on the thicker, harder legs on the advanced to try to shake Vadim. I knew running head to head with Speedy would be a challenging proposition.

Anyway, the first legs started briskly. I had trouble reading the complexities of the (white!) course, and Vadim, Greg, and I made a costly error getting on the wrong side of some green. I plowed through, but they wisely went around eventually. At that point, it was Randy, Greg and Vadim, and me, with decent sized gaps between the three groups.

Somehow, I managed to pull back Greg and Vadim going up the hill through the high crappy field, and then somehow caught up Randy on an uphill grass trail. But, that was a lot of work, as Randy was acting the goat and pushing the pace hard.

Anyway, finished in first, and on to yellow.

I then made one of my classic geometry-based mistakes (tangent vs. orthoganal off a curve) and led people off on a 90 degree error.

Then ran most of remainder of yellow with Vadim. It started to get tougher.

I led into the advanced course, and for better or worse, had a small gap over Vadim. From that point on, I did my own race. It was a slog! First, I was anticipating a winning time of 60 minutes. No dice. It was also quite warm, and the vegetation quite crappy.

Anyway, it was a fun time.

Control pickup

Very slow.

Ran around DC -- first to locate a pospective Sushi place, east, south, lost, to mall, east, west, back to the WaterGate.

I love that place. It seems even nicer now than last time I was there in the summer.

One observation -- Americans like games with balls that don't extol athleticism. So many 20 somethings playing kickball and softball.

My run started very energetically -- I did some strides during the first 20 minutes and the legs felt so very, very light. But, then I hit the wall, so to speak. Probably a consequence of no sleep, no lunch, and boring meeting all afternoon.

level 8 on the Precor

level 8 hills, 7 mph

Who would have thought you could do intervals on a recumbent stationary bike? These things are that good. In fact, they have earned a place in my Pantheon of awesome gym equipment, along with Precor cross trainers and Concept II ergometers. These devices are just nonpareil at what they do.

About 15 intervals at ~40? seconds each.

No running today, bummer. They scheduled a "networking" event in the evening, and despite no open bar, I felt compelled to go. So, I fit my workouts in during the day. It looks like I may not have the chance to see if I can endure running in the desert heat.

On a different note, I've really enjoyed the time here. I feel quite energetic and productive. It struck me how nice being a student is. Although I felt pretty burdened when I was doing 6 x 3 while in school, now that I know how hard it is to do 1 hour per day when working, I now appreciate the undergrad life big time.

Compared to working, attending training from 8 to 5 is so refreshing. There are no appearances to maintain, people you have to talk to, etc... instead, I feel like I am just learning for learning's sake (although if that were really the case I'd be learning something else) and that is just an energizing experience.